Due to the increasing number of internet users and due to the increasing amounts of data that are moved uplink or downlink by a user of the internet, DSL technologies for transmitting data are becoming increasingly popular particularly on the so-called last or first mile (EFM=Ethernet in the First Mile) on the connection path to the internet user. Therefore transmitting data on this connection path should be as secure as possible, i.e., not tolerate any loss of data packets, and should have a transmission rate that is as high as possible. The EFM standard IEEE 802.3-2004, which standardises the transmitting of data on the so-called last mile, does not however always prevent a loss of data. If, for example, the data are received via a DSL connection from a device interacting in the first layer according to the OSI layer model and forwarded with a specific transmission rate to a device which has a medium access control (MAC), a loss of data can occur if the specific transmission rate is higher than a transmission rate at which the device which has the medium access control can forward this data.